criterionforum.org

A Christmas Tale
The Dark Knight
Reprise
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
The Edge of Heaven
My Winnipeg
Transsiberian
The Bank Job
Vicki Cristina Barcelona

saw a handful of these last year, but whatever.

My Winnipeg
Secret Sunshine
The Flight of The Red Balloon
Speed Racer
WALL-E
The Dark Knight
Sukiyaki Western Django
Taxidermia
Be Kind Rewind
Snow Angels

the rest:

Cloverfield
My Blueberry Nights
Mister Lonely
Encounters At the End of the World
Paranoid Park
Step Brothers
Semi-Pro
Diary of the Dead
Hancock
Leatherheads

Well, this should be a 2007-releases list but they are movies I only got to see this year (I do live in Mexico, after all).

1. En La Ciudad de Sylvia
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Paranoid Park
5. Stellet Licht
6. Ne Touchez Pas Le Hache
7. Zoo
8. Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge
9. Night And Day
10. Cazadores Desde El Principio de Los Tiempos

I fully expect my 2008 list to be posted at no sooner than March of 2009.

I’ve seen enough great films now to make a top ten, so here it is, for the time being:

First tier -

Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008) – One of the most impressive debuts I’ve seen in years. The first half or so is the kind of tour-de-force of intelligent effects you’d hope to see in the first film of an important new filmmaker, with brilliant evocations of an entire generation of great British filmmakers: the punchy, analytical formality of Alan Clarke; the close-up kinaesthesia of Bill Douglas; the poetic visual storytelling of Terence Davies; even, at times, the painterly lighting of Peter Greenaway. The long extended dialogue scene in the middle of the film, starting with a rivetting static two-shot that’s held for an entire reel, elevates the film into another realm. It’s the kind of scene that very few filmmakers can pull off at all, but McQueen makes it the most compeling thing we’ve yet seen in a brilliant film. So not only can he ‘do’ imaginative visual storytelling, but he can extract stunning performances and make 20 minutes of dialogue without movement completely cinematic. The long, bleak denouement (nodding to Terence Davies’ Death and Transfiguration – there aren’t a lot of films that tackle the process of dying so directly) is superbly realised as well, and shows McQueen shifting into – and mastering – yet another register.

Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2007) – This seems to have been pegged as slight in some quarters, but I’ve never gone to Hou for high drama (though I’ve often been amazed by how he can turn high drama into something else) and this is one of his most purely pleasurable films: lyrical, relaxed observations of life just happening. Binoche was a real surprise: playing outside her established persona, she gives probably her warmest performance, with more energy and charm than she’s had since her early days with Carax.

An Old Mistress (Catherine Breillat, 2007) – Her best film by some distance, in my opinion. Although there are a couple of sequences where she threatens to topple the film over into the over-serious silliness that mars a lot of her more characteristic work, in general there’s a superb control of mood, detail (those costumes!) and effect in operation, with Breillat’s individual (to say the least) perspective shedding new light on material that we could have seen dozens of time before. And Argento is spectacular, cast to perfection.

Second tier -

A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2007) – Simply gorgeous village chronicle that has much of the mood of prime Ghibli in rural family mode (Totoro, Only Yesterday). It takes its child protagonists seriously, while retaining a deft, light touch. Exquisite, deceptively effortless filmmaking. I was also very impressed by the Masayuki Suo’s fiercely contained ultra-procedural I Just Didn’t Do It, but as a 2006 film it seemed a bit of a stretch to put it on this list.

Wonderful Town (Aditya Assarat, 2007) – For much of its length this is a gorgeously languid and lyrical chaste love story in the vein of sections of Weerasethakul’s films: warm, gentle and beautifully observed. Then the last five minutes deliver two swift kicks that put everything into new perspective(s). I suppose the twists could be considered gimmicky, but they worked for me, and even without them, Assarat seems to have the chops to warrant further investigation.

Black & White Trypps #4 (Ben Russell, 2008) – Talked about this a little in the Avant Garde thread: assaultive kaleidoscopic psychedelia with Richard Pryor.

In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin, 2007) – Maybe the best example I’ve seen recently of how “this is a short film script blown up to feature film length” can be completely irrelevant as criticism. The twenty minutes of people-watching at a café and subsequent thirty minutes of stalking that comprise the heart of this film were so hypnotic I was vaguely disappointed when they turned into a plot of sorts, however wispy. Simply gorgeous filmmaking.

3rd tier -

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) – Discussed copiously in its own thread.

Gomorra (Matteo Garrone, 2008) – Very effective, brutal fresco film, which I was relieved to find didn’t tie its five plot strands up together in a tidy tendentious bow in the last fifteen minutes. Heavily indebted to The Battle of Algiers (no bad thing). I’m interested to see what Garrone will do with less high-concept material.

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go (Kim Longinotto, 2007); The Order of Myths (Margaret Brown, 2008) – Two unassuming documentaries that I couldn’t choose between. Neither is particularly formally inventive, but there’s an intelligence and balance at work in them which is all too rare nowadays. Longinotto (Sisters in Law, Gaea Girls) is fast becoming a living treasure of documentary filmmaking, and her film about a school for exceptionally troubled kids is terrifying and moving in equal measure. The Order of Myths looks at Mobile, Alabama’s Mardi Gras, but it’s actually one of the smartest explorations of race and class in modern America that I’ve seen, without demonisation or simplification. In less than 80 minutes it gets across an entire history of awfulness and injustice while simultaneously maintaining (as does Mobile itself) a celebratory façade and – more to the point – finding genuine things worth celebrating behind that façade.

Plus, honorable mention:

Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke, 2008) – Ultra-deadpan comedy that lives up to the promise of Duck Season, with added formal intelligence. There’s great use of static widescreen composition for comic effect, showing that widescreen longshot composition and comedy are far from incompatible.

Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo, 2008) – He has yet to recover, for me, the greatness and formal excitement of that initial batch of films, but Hong has settled down as one of the most reliable auteurs at work today, an Eric Rohmer for the 21st century, and this film is his clearest nod yet to that particular master.

The Banishment (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2007) – I don’t think the character of the female lead actually held together particularly well (this impacts on the last half hour especially – it’s a much bigger problem with the Dardennes’ Lorna’s Silence, however), but the sureness of Zvyagintsev’s gaze and slow, ratcheting pace made this a compelling experience anyway.

Galen Young wrote:to date so far...

Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

Brilliant film. Saw this one at the IFF Rotterdam and it absolutely blew me away. Truly amazing !

One of those rare films that succeeds at every level. Not only as a genuinely scary and extremely well made vampire flick, but also as one of the most touching (besides being technically well made, as well as superbly paced and acted) coming-of-age stories I've ever seen. The two young leads are simply superb. It has probably been said many times before, but Swedes (or Scandinavian filmmakers in general one might say) have a real talent for finding and directing child actors.

Attention is building slowly, but this film deserves all the press it can get. So far, I would surely rank it as the best of the year so far.

There is no particular order and is ever evolving.

My Blueberry Nights
In Bruges
Run Fatboy Run
REC (I don't know if this qualifies, but I did watch it in 08)
Flight of the Red Balloon
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
The Air I Breathe
Cassandra's Dream
Redbelt
The Dark Knight

****
1, Izgnanie (The Banishment)
2. Silent light
3. The edge of heaven
4. 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days
***½
5. C'est pas moi je le jure
6. Persepolis
7. Ce qu'il faut pour vivre
8. Tout est parfait
9. Vicky Christina Barcelona
***
10. 99 francs
11. The Counterfeiter
12 The year my parents went on vacation
13. My Brother Is an Only Child
14. Four minutes
15. Deux jours a tuer
16. Enfances

Can't wait to see Gomorra, Waltz with Bashir and Lorna's silence

I will probably watch Blindness tonight if I have nothing to do...

1. 35 Rhums (Claire Denis)
1. Le Genou Artemide (Jean-Marie Straub)
1. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso)
4. RR (James Benning)
5. 24 City (Jia Zhang-ke)
6. Une Conte de Noel (Arnaud Desplechin)
7. Still Walking (Hirokazu Koreeda)
8. Birdsong (Albert Serra)
9. My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
10. JCVD (Mabrouk El Mechri)

I guess.

1. Silent Light
2. The Man From London
3. Wendy and Lucy
4. Frownland
5. Mister Lonely
6. Paranoid Park

Are we allowed to count revival films that were screened in 08? IF that is the case, let me continue:

7. Andrei Rublev
8. Mirror
9. The Mother and the Whore
10. Jeanne Dielman

1. Liverpool| Lisandro Alonso
2. Wendy and Lucy | Kelly Reichardt
3. 24 City | Jia Zhang-ke
4. 35 Rhums | Claire Denis
5. Hunger | Steve McQueen
6. Sugar | Anna Biden & Ryan Fleck
7. Salamandra | Pablo Aguero
8. Goodbye Solo | Ramin Bahrani
9. Salamandra | Pablo Aguero
10. Still Walking| Hirokazu Kore-eda

Haven't seen 'The Class' or 'Ballast' yet...

This seems somewhat pointless in the year of the Oshima retrospective. He made at least 10 films better than anything that came out this year (e.g. Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun's Burial, Night and Fog in Japan, The Pleasures of the Flesh, Violence at Noon, Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, Three Resurrected Drunkards, The Ceremony, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Gohatto). But here goes:

1. The Fall (Tarsem)
2. Ashes of Time Redux (WKW)
3. The Headless Woman (Martel)
4. Heartbeat Detector (Klotz)
5. On War (Bonello)
6. Petelinji zajtrk (Nabersnik)
7. Made of Honor (Weiland)
8. Christmas Tale (Desplechin)
9. RocknRolla (Ritchie)
10 (tie). Travelling with Pets (Storozheva)
10 (tie). Mother of Tears (last 10 seconds only) (Argento)

Made Of Honor?

And where's the death of Depardieu fils?

The top 10:
1. Dear Zachary: A Letter To His Son About His Father (Kuenne)
2. The Dark Knight (Nolan)
3. WALL-E (Stanton)
4. Ponyo (Miyazaki)
5. In Bruges (McDonagh)
6. Gran Torino (Eastwood)
7. Let The Right One In (Alfredson)
8. Rumba (Abel, Gordon)
9. Still Walking (Kore-eda)
10. Trouble The Water (Deal, Lessin)

The next 10:
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (Gervasi)
Man On Wire (Marsh)
The Hurt Locker (Bigelow)
Sexykiller (Marti)
Cloverfield (Reeves)
At The Death House Door (Gilbert, James)
A Matter Of Loaf And Death (Park)
Baghead (Duplass, Duplass)
Troubled Water (Poppe)
Involuntary (Ostlund)

Most disappointing:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Spielberg)

1. The Dark Knight
2. Wall-E
3. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
4. The Wrestler
5. Recount
6. In Bruges
7. Pineapple Express
8. Tropic Thunder
9. Body Of Lies
10. Burn After Reading

currently:


- Still Life
- My Winnipeg
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Ashes of Time Redux
- Waltz with Bashir
- Gomorra
- Man on Wire
- Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame
- Encounters at the End of the World
- The Fall

01. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
02. My Winnipeg
03. The Wrestler
04. Let the Right One In
05. Encounters at the End of the World
06. Wendy and Lucy
07. Gran Torino
08. Wall-E
09. Happy-Go-Lucky
10. Pineapple Express

1. The Band's Visit
2. The Mourning Forest/Mogari No Mori
3. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
4. Vicky Christina Barcelona
5. The Counterfeiters
6. Encounters At The End of the World
7. The Dark Knight
8. Wall-E
9. Role Models (Well, the funny half at least)
10.

Bottom 10:
1. Choke
2. Tropic Thunder
3. Fix
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

1. Wall-E
2. The Fall
3. Let The Right One In
4. Doubt
5. Happy Go Lucky
6. Gran Torino
7. Wrestler
8. Milk
9. In Bruges
10. Wendy & Lucy
Honorable mention: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

1.Darling
2.Let The Right One In
3.Wall-E
4.Ashes Of Time Redux
5.Lorna's Silence
6.It's Hard Being Loved By Jerks
7.The Early Years - Erik Nietzche Part 1
8.Redbelt
9.Involuntary
10.Wanted (admitted, I saw this hungover, and films like these always seem more awesome in that state. Might not enjoy it a second time nearly as much.)

Now with slams:

1. The Fall (Tarsem)
2. Wall-E (Stanton)
3. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen)
4. Let the Right One In (Alfredson)
5. Doubt (Shanley)
6. Spider (Edgerton) -- Saw this at the LA Film Fest shorts program. Wonderful Australian film. Dramatic, funny, frightening with several twists all within its short run time. IMDB'ing it says it won an honorable mention at Sundance.

Slams:
Biggest Disappointment: Hunger (McQueen)
Worst Overall: Cloverfield (Reeves)

1. Paranoid Park
2. My Winnipeg
3. Let the Right One In
4. Happy-Go-Lucky
5. Flight of the Red Balloon
6. You, the Living
7. The Fall
8. Frozen River
9. Youth Without Youth
10. Redbelt

11. Snow Angels
12. Hunger
13. The Way We Are
14. Shotgun Stories
15. Eden Log

01 Un conte de Noël (Arnaud Desplechin)
02 Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allen)
03 Redbelt (David Mamet)
04 Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (Bharat Nalluri)
05 the Tracey Fragments (Bruce McDonald)
06 Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)
07 Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
08 Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
09 Le premier jour du reste de ta vie (Rémi Bezançon)
10 the Lucky Ones (Neil Burger)

UPDATED 07/10/2018

01. Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman)
02. Speed Racer (La. Wachowski/Li. Wachowski)
03. Burn After Reading (J. Coen/E. Coen)
04. Milk (Van Sant)
05. Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father (Kuenne)
06. Wall•E (Stanton)
07. Doubt (Shanley)
08. Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt)
09. Gran Torino (Eastwood)
10. Pineapple Express (Green)

LAST UPDATED: 5/28/2026

1. 35 Shots of Rum
2. Love Exposure
3. Il divo (Sorrentino)
4. Extraordinary Stories (Llinas)
5. A Christmas Tale
6. Everlasting Moments
7. Of Time and the City
8. Pontypool
9. Still Walking
10.Shirin